


Into A Lion Bold

by merewiowing



Category: Fire Emblem Series, Fire Emblem: Kakusei | Fire Emblem: Awakening
Genre: Animal Metaphors, F/F, Fairy Tale Elements, Implied Sexual Content
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-16
Updated: 2015-09-16
Packaged: 2018-04-21 02:02:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,206
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4810631
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/merewiowing/pseuds/merewiowing
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sumia was brought up to fear wolves, and if someone told her Robin is one, she wouldn't believe it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Into A Lion Bold

**Author's Note:**

  * For [astrogeny](https://archiveofourown.org/users/astrogeny/gifts).



> content warnings: non-descriptive mentions of blood and death, very vague sexual content.

Sumia was brought up to fear wolves. She took this wisdom from stories she never read and advice she never received. It planted small, thorny seeds in her head, and the seeds germinated into black, prickly vines of an almost primal fear. Fear, and the age-old knowledge that when it comes to death, there is little difference between men and sheep.

Sumia has always, without being told to do so, avoided red clothes. Not just capes and hoods; she knows, instinctively, like the voice of her mother, that all reds attract death. (She wishes Cordelia would cut her hair.) Likewise, the only one who told her not to enter woods at night was herself. Night was when sheep returned to the barn and slept. Sumia has always known herself to be a sheep.

She joined the Shepherds hoping to shear her own wool.

 

Sumia was brought up to fear wolves. She knows them from ears to paws: eyes, mouth, saliva, hunger. Claws, teeth, death. She knows that wolves cannot conceal themselves – unlike sheep, they cannot take off their furs, and they cannot file down their teeth. A wolf will always be found out, by dirt on its paws or by the gleam of its eyes. The only question is, will the wolf be found with meat between its teeth, with blood dripping from its mouth?

When Robin joined the Shepherds, Sumia didn’t listen to the others’ doubts. Robin’s eyes were brown, not yellow. When she laughed, Sumia saw her teeth, short human teeth.

 

Sumia was brought up to fear wolves, and men who turn to wolves. Now, she meets a woman who changes her skin – proof against her education. Panne is quiet and trustworthy. Robin laughs, and she tells Sumia that it’s not shapeshifters, it’s cruel men she was warned about. She quotes a saying in an ancient tongue Sumia doesn’t speak. All it proves is that people have feared wolves in ancient times, too, she replies. Robin smiles, without showing her teeth. Robin’s mouth is small and she eats little.

A young girl who changes her skin to scales joins the Shepherds, and Robin asks, her voice still carrying a hint of wonder, what of dragons, Sumia, do you fear dragons?

 

Sumia was brought up to fear wolves, and war makes her yearn for their company instead. The life of a soldier is one of balancing values, she learns. She weights hunger against cruelty, necessity against orders. A wolf is a simple creature. It doesn’t speak and its eyes are inhuman. When it’s killed, the hunter doesn’t see herself reflected in them.

Robin joins Sumia in battle, and in the healers’ tent. In her tent, and in Sumia’s own tent. Her small mouth twists when her wounds close, and her small hand grasps Sumia’s tightly. Her small, round fingernails leave half-moon marks on Sumia’s palm.

 

Sumia was brought up to fear wolves, and now she thinks even beasts of the forest should celebrate. They should deliver gifts from the forest kings, like in stories, and return to their green homes, their hunts and chases postponed. They wouldn’t dare disturb Ylisse in her deserved peace. The days are quiet, and the sheep sleep soundly for one night more, and another, and another. Their herders grow calm and content.

Sumia joins Robin in her rooms, and Robin joins Sumia in her room. They read together, arms pressed against each other. On idle evenings, Sumia learns: there are many more beasts in the world. None of them push wolves out of her mind.

Sumia’s wool grows back, slowly.

 

Robin’s mouth is a thin line when Sumia watches her prepare to march. Her small hands are quick, too quick, careless – her books slip out of her hands. Robin catches them, breaking one of her small, round fingernails. She sucks on her finger and curses in pain. Sumia thinks, men and sheep are fragile.

 

Sumia was brought up to fear wolves, and now she is older, and she knows how to face them. She has learned so much, and she feels proud of herself despite having to shear her wool again. Her exposed skin is harder than it was, and her wool was shorter.

Cordelia puts her hair up. They all face wolves as best as they can.

 

Robin’s mouth touches Sumia’s cheek like a feather, and Sumia knows the difference between men and wolves is that wolves only eat and howl. Robin’s hair is long, in a way only men, and no animals, would wear it. Robin’s mouth is soft and her small teeth bite into Sumia’s lip, but Sumia, who was brought up to fear wolves, forgets about it, if only for a few hours. Later, Robin asks what makes Sumia come to her. Sumia doesn’t reply; neither does she leave.

If wolves howl during those nights, Sumia can’t hear them through the walls of her tent.

 

Robin returns to Sumia, night after night. Her small mouth, her small teeth, her small hands, Sumia knows them and she loves them, and wolves cannot enter her tent. After the war, she will bring Robin home, and wolves will not follow them. They will live far away from woods without kings, and they will share idle, quiet evenings, their arms will press against each other. Sumia reminds herself, peace will come, and with it safety.

Robin sighs against her skin, and into the darkness, when she thinks Sumia is asleep. Her breaths are quiet and shallow. She eats even less these days, and Sumia tells her, eat, or only your shade will remain.

 

Lucina asks Sumia what she fears, and Sumia says, wolves, and other woodland beasts. There is a glimmer in Lucina’s eyes. She understands; she’s wise for her age, and she has inherited that fear as well.

Sumia wants to ask, does wolf’s bane still bloom in Lucina’s future?

 

Sumia was brought up to fear wolves, and yet she never knew about sheep who shear their wool and find grey fur beneath. Wolves who sneak into herds only remain there for a short time before returning to the woods. Wolves don’t eat, don’t walk, don’t sleep with sheep.

Robin’s eyes, her human eyes, avoid Sumia’s, and Sumia thinks about teeth.

 

Sumia was brought up to fear wolves, and today, the wolf asks her, take me back, don’t be afraid of me. The wolf says, I am the woman you love. Sumia asks, if I hold you in my arms, will your fingernails and teeth grow into claws and fangs? Wolf, she doesn’t ask, will your silver hair turn to grey fur? The wolf says, let me in, you are the woman I love.

Sumia holds Robin, she holds her tight. Her heartbeat is soft, and her brown eyes glisten. Sumia remembers, there are fairytales of men who were cursed to be wolves.

 

Robin leans up and kisses her, her small mouth on Sumia’s mouth. For the last time, she sheds her grey furs. Her fangs, her claws lie around her feet. She laughs like a human and asks, Sumia, will you take my hand, will you take me home?

Sumia promises, and she takes Robin’s hand, her small hand. She holds it until it turns into a shade.

 

**Author's Note:**

> i spent the better half of yesterday listening to anaïs mitchell's "tam lin (child 39)" on repeat, and this fic is inspired by the lines _but first, i'll change all in your arms into a wild wolf / but hold me tight and fear me not, i am your own true love_. (honestly the first version of this fic i posted on tumblr last night was an outright songfic with direct quotes from the lyrics at the end, don't write past midnight kids.) 
> 
> i'm gifting and dedicating this to my friend anise (astrogeny on ao3), who patiently listened to me talk about this idea on twitter and encouraged me to try it out. thank u, anise, for continuing to enable my f/f ships in this fandom.


End file.
